Latin America rejects coup in Peru, while US supports unelected regime killing protesters

At least 14 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean have condemned the coup in Peru, backing President Pedro Castillo. The unelected regime, which has killed dozens of protesters, has the staunch support of the US and the region’s right wing.

Ben Norton

Multipolarista | December 20, 2022

More than a dozen countries in Latin America and the Caribbean have condemned the coup in Peru and backed democratically elected President Pedro Castillo.

Meanwhile, the US government has staunchly supported the coup regime, which has suspended civil liberties, imprisoned Castillo for 18 months without trial, and unleashed extreme violence on Peruvian protesters, killing dozens and wounding hundreds.

US influence in Latin America is on the decline

Petro’s victory has meant the biggest setback for US influence on the continent

Jesus Inojosa

Últimas Noticias | August 14, 2022

The victory of Gustavo Petro in Colombia and his inauguration as President of the New Granada nation has set off alarms in the United States, where the possible end of the so-called “Washington influence” in Latin America is seen.

“It is time for a new international convention that accepts that the war on drugs has utterly failed, that it has left a million Latin Americans murdered, most of them Colombians, and that it leaves 70.000 North Americans dead from drug overdoses every year; none produced in Latin America”.

These words spoken by Petro During his inauguration speech this Sunday, he directly questions US policy in the neighboring country with the so-called “Plan Colombia”, which could mean the possibility of ending this agreement that has allowed the US to install no less than nine military bases in Colombian territory and guarantee the free action of officials of the DEA, the CIA and its Army, as well as the implementation of the extraterritoriality of its laws in this nation.

2021 Latin America and the Caribbean in Review: The Pink Tide Rises Again

Roger D. Harris

Orinoco Tribune | January 01, 2022

US policy towards Latin America and the Caribbean continued in a seamless transition from Trump to Biden, but the terrain over which it operated shifted left. The balance between the US drive to dominate its “backyard” and its counterpart, the Bolivarian cause of regional independence and integration, continued to tip portside in 2021 with major popular electoral victories in Chile, Honduras, and Peru. These follow the previous year’s reversal of the coup in Bolivia. 

Central has been the struggle of the ALBA (Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of our America) countries – particularly Venezuela, Cuba, and Nicaragua – against the asphyxiating US blockade and other regime-change measures. Presidential candidate Biden pledged to review Trump’s policy of US sanctions against a third of humanity. The presumptive intention of the review was to ameliorate the human suffering caused by these unilateral coercive measures, considered illegal under international law. Following the review, Biden has instead tightened the screws, more effectively weaponizing the COVID crisis. 

Over 1.5 million Bolivians march in defense of democracy and President Arce’s government

President Luis Arce thanked Bolivian citizens for their overwhelming support, and promised to continue working to rebuild the country and the economy with the people

Tanya Wadhwa

People’s Dispatch | December 01, 2021

Over 1.5 million Bolivians took part in a rally in La Paz on November 29, in defense of democracy and President Luis Arce’s government. Photo: Luis Arce/Twitter

Thousands of Bolivians, who undertook a 180-km and seven-day-long journey on foot from the town of Caracollo in the Oruro department under the banner of ‘March for the Homeland,’ arrived in the capital city La Paz on November 29. The historic march, which was organized in defense of democracy and in support of President Luis Arce’s government, concluded with a massive rally at the San Francisco plaza in La Paz.

Over 1.5 million workers, women, students and peasants from across Bolivia joined the rally in the capital and expressed their approval of the national government of the ruling Movement Towards Socialism (MAS) party, and their rejection of the destabilization attempts by the far-right opposition sectors. Holding national flags, Indigenous Wiphala flags, placards demanding justice for Sacaba and Senkata massacres’ victims, respect for the 2020 election results, rejecting coup attempts by the right-wing forces, hundreds of thousands of Bolivians flooded the plaza and the surrounding streets for several blocks.

On the occasion of Che Guevara’s death anniversary JoP remembers him with great reverence. Your revolutionary spirit continues to inspire us, Comrade Che!

Listen to this beautiful song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0k8xMiZp588

[THIS IS POSTED HERE FOR NON-PROFIT, NON-COMMERCIAL, EDUCATIONAL PURPOSE.]

Plotters of the coup d’état in Bolivia tried to assassinate Evo Morales, reveals AMLO

President Andrés Manuel López Obrador revealed that a section of the Bolivian armed forces may have launched an RPG rocket at the plane that was transporting former President Evo Morales to Mexico after the coup d’état in Bolivia in November 2019

Peoples Dispatch | September 03, 2021

Former Bolivian President Evo Morales arrived in Mexico from Bolivia on November 12, 2019, two days after the civic-military coup that forced him to step down. Photo: Kawsachun News

Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) has revealed that former Bolivian President Evo Morales would have been assassinated by the right-wing opposition forces with the support of the Bolivian armed forces if a pilot from the Mexican Air Force (FAM) hadn’t saved his life by dodging an RPG rocket launched at the plane that was transporting him to Mexico. The assassination attempt was revealed in his book A la Mitad del Camino (Halfway through the Road), which was released on August 31,

AMLO’s book gives a detailed account of Operation Bolivia, through which Morales was rescued after the coup d’état in November 2019. A document of the National Defense Secretariat of Mexico, published in the book, shares the testimony of a FAM official and pilot, Miguel Hernández, who expressed his suspicions that a section of the Bolivian armed forces targeted the aircraft with an RPG rocket, moments after it took off from the Chimoré airport in Cochabamba, Bolivia.

Nicaragua, Mexico and Argentina Support Bolivia’s Motion to Investigate Almagro for OAS Role in 2019 Coup

orinocotribune | August 28, 2021

During a special virtual meeting of the Permanent Council of the Organization of American States (OAS), that brought together its 34 active member countries, the government of Bolivia reiterated its motion to initiate an investigation against Secretary General Luis Almagro and his putschist agenda.

Bolivian Foreign Affairs Minister Rogelio Mayta denounced the OAS for its renewed and unjustified attack on Bolivia, after Almagro reaffirmed, on August 9, that a fraud had taken place in the 2019 Bolivian presidential elections.

As Anger Toward Belarus Mounts, Recall the 2013 Forced Landing of Bolivia’s Plane to Find Snowden

IMPERIALISM 

Glenn Greenwald

SUBSTACK | May 25, 2021

Bolivian President Evo Morales holds a press conference at the Vienna International Airport on July 3, 2013. Bolivian President Evo Morales angrily denied any wrongdoing on Wednesday after his plane was diverted to Vienna over suspicion fugitive US intelligence leaker Edward Snowden was on board. AFP PHOTO via Getty Images)

U.S. and E.U. governments are expressing outrage today over the forced landing by Belarus of a passenger jet flying over its airspace on its way to Lithuania. The Ryanair commercial jet, which took off from Athens and was carrying 171 passengers, was just a few miles from the Lithuanian border when a Belarusian MiG-29 fighter jet ordered the plane to make a U-turn and land in Minsk, the nation’s capital.

On board that Ryanair flight was a leading Belarusian opposition figure, 26-year-old Roman Protasevich, who, fearing arrest, had fled his country in 2019 to live in exile in neighboring Lithuania. The opposition figure had traveled to Athens to attend a conference on economics with Belarus’ primary opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaya and was attempting to return home to Lithuania when the plane was forcibly diverted.

Poverty, precarious work, and the COVID-19 pandemic: lessons from Bolivia

COVID-19 PANDEMIC IN BOLIVIA

Calla Hummel, Felicia Marie Knaul, Michael Touchton, V Ximena Velasco Guachalla, Jami Nelson-Nuñez & Carew Boulding

The Lancet | Open Access | Published: January 25, 2021 | DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/S2214-109X(21)00001-2

Bolivia is one of the poorest countries in Latin America with a gross domestic product of around US$3500 per capita, health spending of approximately $220 per capita, a labour market dominated by informal work, and a weak health system. However, in the response to COVID-19, Bolivia has fared better than other health systems in the region and provides insight with regard to the implementation of subnational non-pharmaceutical interventions and supporting workers without social protection.

Subnational elections in Bolivia: another vote of confidence for MAS party

PEOPLE’S STRUGGLE IN BOLIVIA

Peoples Dispatch | March 28, 2021

The ruling government of progressive Movement Towards Socialism (MAS)party emerged as the winner of the subnational elections held in Bolivia on March 7. Photo: Agencia Boliviana de Información

The results of the subnational elections held in Bolivia on March 7 confirm the faith of the Bolivian people in the ruling government of the progressive Movement Towards Socialism (MAS) party and its transformation project. According to the results of the departmental, regional and municipal elections released on March 22, the MAS is the only party that has a broad presence in all the nine departments of the country.

The MAS won 240 out of 336 mayor’s offices, which represents a majority of over 70% of the country’s local governments. The party secured 13 more mayors than in the last elections held in 2015. Additionally, in 19 municipalities, the victory was consolidated with 100% of the valid vote.